To start off, my names Billy and im 16 years old. At the start of the year, I weighed 107kg's, and was 165cm tall. I was really unfit, feeling exhausted after riding 2k's. I Since then, I rode to and from school everyday, starting off taking the most direct route, 3km's approx, and have since increased it to 5-10kms with a less direct option. I now weigh 70kg's, an I am 171cms tall. I feel like I have lots more energy than I ever have. I still continue to ride to school, and have now moved house, convincing the parents to move 10kms further away from my school, just to enjoy the ride everyday. I ride the Lilydale -> Waburton trail, 40km each way, every saturday religously, and now refuse to use public transport; instead, i just pedal.

My goal is to drop down to 65kg's, and lose my belly fat by 3/2/2013 (first day at a new school). I will make this happen; but as they say, the last 5 kilo's are always the hardest to lose.

Is anyone one on here a dietician, personal trainer, or have enough experience to suggest what i should be doing in terms of riding/excercising to lose my stomach fat? ie, what i should be eating, meals, snacks, ect. Im not looking to "bulk up" just to basically slim down, and get into shape for next year.

I also drink a load of green tea, Ive been having a cheat meal, once a week at lunchtime, just to keep my diet half interesting, which is apparently reconmended, not mcdonalds or anything, just more carbs than i would normaly have ie pasta, burger with grilled chicken and mayo ect.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. I have a gym membership, but find it really challenging to do anything there, (lack of motivation) instead i just ride somewhere; should i be using light weights and working on cardio exercises?

What an excellent story, I'm so glad you've turned your life around while you're still young.

I'm no diet expert but it sounds like you're doing the right things. Belly fat is the hardest to lose, it's also the worst for your heart health. Just eat a bit less and keep riding and it will go in time. Watch out that you yogurt does not have sugar. They say no fat on them but sugar in not a fat, it will however convert to fat if you don't burn it all. Cut out all sugar, fruit has enough of it.

Great job Billy!You have done so well.... I am sure you will achieve your goal. I got great results from Tim Ferris' book The 4 Hour Body but your body is still developing at 16 and so you need to be careful with any regime you follow. As a rank amateur in this stuff I would suggest finding a good nutritionist who is experienced in working with people your age,Good luck,Andrew

Lift the intensity of your rides every second day and do plenty of push ups, sit ups and those other things where you lay on your back with your head off the ground and bring your knees up to abs like you you're riding.

Foo

I don't suffer fools easily and so long as you have done your best,you should have no regrets.Goal 6000km

As others have said you seem to be doing all the right things. I wouldn't get too hung up on the diet side just yet cause your still young and you still need to enjoy life. Think balance & moderation and you, I think, still have to go to school.

You mentioned motivation so maybe if you consider setting yourself some other goals, to act as rungs on a ladder, towards your finally goal. Things like:- increase your distance of your weekend ride - climb a hill(1:20 isn't that far away) - even set yourself to do the "Around the Bay in a Day", maybe get some friends along. - Even Mountain Biking. - Keep a "Ride Diary" either online Strava.com, Garmin, etc. or with an Exercise Book & pen. Just anything that you can look at your past rides and think "wow I did that"

I'm familiar with the Lilydale area too and the hills around Chirnside Park(just watch Victoria Rd) are a good start and maybe see if you can plug into a group ride in that area. And check out the BV Forums

You mentioned the gym that's good too but have you tried any of the group fitness sessions (like Body Step, Body Pump) because they are Cardio intensive and are indoors so when the weather is foul then there's something to do.

And now that you have a hobby/past-time/addiction and Christmas isn't too far away.......you follow? Oh, what type of bike are you riding?

The last 5 is hard. Inspiring story. I lost 8kg's in 3 months but the last 5 I need to loose is taking me forever. I suspect though that if you keep up what you are doing you will inevitably end up where you want to be.

Perhaps join a club, go on group rides and even race. It's not as big a step as it sounds and there's nothing like a bit of competition to up the intensity of your rides.

First - congrats, I too lost loads of weight recently and feel great as a result.

Secondly - from my experience and research, got a few suggestions & thoughts:

1. Try white tea (e.g. "Silver Needles") rather than green tea, it contains even more of those fat-burning antioxidants (personally I think it tastes better; and usually has less caffeine, so you can drink more of it)2. I take 1g of L-carnitine powder in water twice a day; there is preliminary research* that suggests L-carnitine reduces the deposition of visceral (belly) fat.3. Are you sure it's not just loose skin? I have areas of loose skin following major weight loss, and I'm told it'll take a couple of years to tighten up. Living skin is thicker than you might think, 2-3mm and folds up easily.4. Bulking up a little will help you slim down; don't be afraid of that, muscle mass burns more fat, period. You don't need to be Mr Universe; cyclists benefit enormously from core strength and functional upper body strength. I do pilates, tai chi and yoga classes** at my gym for this (plus the resulting flexibility reduces my injury risk).5. Try doing a glycogen-depleted fat-burning ride. E.g. once a month, I did this: skip dinner, then sleep; on waking, ride for three hours at ~70% of maximum heart rate: the body will HAVE to burn fat because there's nothing else. Then a normal carbohydrate breakfast with extra lean protein to prevent muscle damage, and lots of antioxidants to sustain the immune system (blueberries, vitamin C, vitamin E). My favourite ride for this was Melbourne to Arthur's Seat and I could be sure of burning 300g of fat in one ride. This is extreme stuff and floods the body with stress hormones that take a couple of days to clear, so don't do it often and drink plenty of water for 48hr afterwards.6. Count your calories. I weigh all my food with digital scales and track all calories consumed & burned using an iPhone app. When losing weight I aim to have a fixed energy deficit of 1,000 kcal/day; that's 7,000 kcal/week and represents a kilo of fat burned.

all the best and good luck with that "final five"!

cheersJosh

* Kang, J., Lee, W., et al. Improvement of High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity by a Mixture of Red Grape Extract, Soy Isoflavone, and L-Carnitine: Implications in Cardiovascular and Non-Alcoholic Liver Disease. Food and Chemical Toxicology. September 2011** It is perfectly normal to feel like a complete spaz when starting these disciplines.

Apple wrote:Same, congratulations. but my question is, How did you get taller, I have been trying for years.

I thought the same until I realised OP is still a growing young man. Youth helps!

My suggestion to the OP is to just keep doing what you did but gradually increase your ride volume ie. Energy expenditure, without significantly increase your intake. Weight loss is a simple equation of calories in and calories out. If you continue to stay in negative balance, your belly fat will go in due course.

Congrats! As someone who has lost 40kilos in two years, you are doing almost the same I did. Simply increase the number of Kms over the weekends and eat more tuna after your big rides. Do not get disheartened when your weight plateaus. This is simply your muscles building up and they weigh a lot more than fat. So for a while it will seem as though you are not losing weight. You are still losing fat though.

Oh and losing the fat off your stomach is the hardest. You just need to realise your body is still changing and it will bulk up when you are about to go through a growth spurt.

The most important thing is to enjoy your cycling. Do not just cycle to lose weight. Give yourself goals on the bike and try to achieve them. It is really satisfying. This is where Strava can help.

mix it up. if its loosing weight your focused on try swimming or running both sports target more major muscle groups thus using more energy.also the body uses fat as its main energy source when at rest, so as painful as it may seem sometimes the best exercises to do are the ones that keep your heart rate low. its great that you are keeping a good diet, try to calculate the calories or kilojoules that you are consuming daily and aim to burn them all plus some so your body then has to use the fat stores for energy.

First off. Your a freaking legend! Anyone who can do what you have done is a champion in my book. Well done!

Next: I suggest you get the "My Fitness Pal" app. It is simply brilliant and has all the foods I have in my pantry including locally made stuff like Coles/Woolworths bakery & deli products. Give it a go, I guarantee it will help you achieve your goals by tracking exactly what you are putting in your mouth. Another thing here is that it is better to keep the volume of food you are eating high, whilst keeping the calorific value of that food low. The idea is your metabolism runs faster processing that food, burning more calories, yet you have not taken more calories in. This is a key idea from Weight Watchers with which I lost 20kg...

I agree you need to enjoy what you eat, a cheat meal now and then is ok and you are keeping that in check so well done again. If your meals are booring, then needn't be, just go looking for low sugar/fat meals.

Gyms are great, but it is hard to stay motivated. They are good because they increase your muscle mass and the more muscle, the more energy you burn. Having said that, you don't need a Gym to build muscle mass. Ride hills/faster and you will build your thighs/legs. Do push/ups, chin ups, etc. You can do similar exercises to what you are doing at the gym with the stuff you have around the home. Grab an old truck tyre and flip it over, then over again going across the yard. Find a heavy rock and do curls holding that. There are many web sites dedicated to exercising in this way so get googling if it might interest you.

A word of warning regarding glycogen depleation. You might want to do some more looking into this. Try Google Scholar as I think you will find that yes, you'll burn fat BUT the body is designed to preserve fat stores and stressing it like will encourage the fat storage process in the following days. Also, high levels of energy deficency is also no a good idea in my opinion and is not sustainable.

Finally, unfortunalty it is not possible to target fat loss in one particular area despite what the latest Ab-doer (or whatever) suggests. You may have noticed you lost the fat first from the areas you gained in last? Unfortunatly, the stomach is the first to gain/last to loose area. Your body burns the fat how it likes, regardless of the particular exercise you are doing. Targeting Abs will tone your muscles, pulling them tighter, improoving the look but will not specically reduce the fat around them Just keep it up and it will reduce. Also you need to be realistic. Not everyone can have zero skin folds! I believe genetics does play a part here.

REGARDLESS, of all that.. you've gotten so far already, just keep doing what you've been doing, it's just the gains get smaller and smaller as you near the end.

Well done, mate, you can't target fat loss from a particular area (ignore those TV infomercials), but as others have said, high volume, lower intensity is the way to go until you've got a base fitness. I've got a mate who slimmed right down just by walking everywhere, but this is a cycling forum, so when in Rome ....

Puffy wrote:A word of warning regarding glycogen depleation. You might want to do some more looking into this. Try Google Scholar as I think you will find that yes, you'll burn fat BUT the body is designed to preserve fat stores and stressing it like will encourage the fat storage process in the following days. Also, high levels of energy deficency is also no a good idea in my opinion and is not sustainable.

After a ton of research and experimentation I can say:* It works - a very long, low-intensity ride whilst glycogen depleted will burn almost entirely fat. It's also good base training.* You feel like crap afterwards.* It is not sustainable and repeatedly doing so without adequate recovery will lead to muscle damage.* To prevent starvation mode in following days, interleave short high intensity efforts with short recovery efforts. Eat 40/40/20 for recovery. Consume lots of antioxidants (vitC/E, berries, green tea).

Note that all energy deficits will leave you with elevated levels of leptin and NPY, two chemical signallers that are powerful drivers of appetite. This is where stakeholder support and good psych strategy comes into the weight-loss game. Don't leave any cakes in the fridge :>

Thanks very much for all the suggestions and advice; and the positive comments and feedback!

As some of you may/may not not, I got hit by a car late last year, which really put me off cycling. I began to go to gym a lot more and ditched the bike. I hit my goal of 65kg's within about 6 weeks of starting and am now really confident with myself! I went from a 38" to a 30" in jeans/pants, and from a XL to a Small/sometimes Medium in tee's!

I have just dusted off my bike and am slowly starting to ride again! I got 60k's out last weekend, and can hopefully double it this week!

Once again, Thanks to all those who encouraged me and gave their advice, It means alot!- Billy

Last edited by Hitachis on Sat Jun 29, 2013 2:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.